Year of the Rat set revealed

Brickset.com

The Chinese new year begins on 25th January and once again LEGO is releasing a cute rendition of the year's zodiac animal, which this year is 40355 Year of the Rat.

This image was sent to me by my good friend Nick in New York. I've no idea where he obtained the set from but I'm trying to find out!

The tradition of releasing small sets like this began in 2015 with 40148 Year of the Sheep and like the others this one comes in a flap-top box with an envelope inside that can, as is customary, be filled with money before gifting.

I suspect, like the others, it will be widely available in due course.

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Source: 47073

Paperballpark

I wonder if they'll massively over-produce this one like they did with the year of the dog one?

Astrobricks

Paperballpark said:

I wonder if they'll massively over-produce this one like they did with the year of the dog one?

If it’s one thing rats are good at its massively over-(re)producing ;-)

SumoLego

Paperballpark said:

I wonder if they'll massively over-produce this one like they did with the year of the dog one?

Let's hope so.  Getting a much scarcer 'Year of the Monkey' was a bit of a nightmare.

cody6268

Cute, and hopefully easy to get now that country exclusives have gone the way of the dodo. 

klinton

cody6268 said:

Cute, and hopefully easy to get now that country exclusives have gone the way of the dodo. 

They were absolutely swimming in Year of the Pig sets this year. My local Lego store was still offering them in April, and then they returned to [email protected] again in the summer. I had at least five of them at one point, all foisted on me by employees desperate to get them out of the store.

I don't think you'll have an issue getting the rat.

herbyderby

Any word of when this will be released? It is not on shop.lego.com like the other impending new year sets (Jan 10).

klinton

herbyderby said:

Any word of when this will be released? It is not on shop.lego.com like the other impending new year sets (Jan 10).

It'll be available January 13-26 with an 80$ spend. 

Bumblepants

I'm torn between wanting the temple day 1 and not risking shipping delay and wanting a promo item

herbyderby

I really hope they keep going until there are a full set of 12. My guess is they'll stop one short :-)

panchox1

herbyderby said:

I really hope they keep going until there are a full set of 12. My guess is they'll stop one short :-)

How many have been released so far?

herbyderby

panchox1 said:

herbyderby said:

I really hope they keep going until there are a full set of 12. My guess is they'll stop one short :-)

How many have been released so far?

In this style: Rat, Pig, Dog, Rooster, Monkey, Sheep.
https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Seasonal/subtheme-Chinese-New-Year

There was also a quite different Snake #10250

Jern92

Bumblepants said:

I'm torn between wanting the temple day 1 and not risking shipping delay and wanting a promo item

Here in Malaysia they excluded the temple sets from the Year of the Rat promo. Kinda shitty if you ask me.